How The Higgs Field Works

The workings of the Higgs field — how it gives mass to the particles of nature; what the Higgs particle or Higgs “boson” has to do with it; why we knew some aspects of the Higgs field before the LHC but needed the LHC to tell us about the particle; why the particle in turn will tell us more about the field — these are all mysterious to the curious non-expert.

Fortunately, the story of the Higgs field and its particle really is not so complicated. I’m still thinking about how best to explain this to a completely general audience. But for someone who has a vague memory of a physics course from advanced pre-university or beginning-university education, it’s quite reasonable to try.

Not that it won’t take a little learning and a little thinking; but a lot of that learning and thinking is also basic to particle physics, so anyone who tries this will not only learn about the Higgs but will also come away with a deeper understanding of particle physics in general. I hope that will be plenty of motivation for many of you to follow the sequence of articles that follow — which I’ve decided belatedly to store in another location.